Quickbooks Review For Small Business – Self Employed – Freelancer – Contractor

SPECIAL OFFER: Get 50% off for 90 days HERE

Are you wondering if Quickbooks SELF-EMPLOYED is the right choice for you?

I have used Quickbooks for over a decade for my business and have some pros and cons I want to share with you before you decide if Quickbooks Online is the best choice for your self-employed or freelance business.

This is my Quickbooks Online review. If you have any questions please reach out or leave a comment!

What is Quickbooks?

Quickbooks is an online accounting software for freelancers, self-employed, and small and large scale businesses. There are different levels of the software based on the size, format, and industry of your business.

Faster payments, organized for you

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION –

(transcription is auto-generated)

Hey, what’s up? It’s Torie Mathis, and today I want to talk to you about QuickBooks. 

I want to welcome you to my ongoing software series, where we talk about ways that you can be smarter in your business. By using software to make better decisions, save more time, and do things more quickly. Because that is the real way that your business is going to grow today, we’re talking about Quickbooks. 

QuickBooks is an online-based accounting software, and if you thought that Quickbooks was only for big business, then you would be wrong. Quickbooks actually is for any size business, even if you are a solopreneur or a contractor, and they have the perfect plan for you. 

There are some alternatives to QuickBooks that you may have heard of. Some of those are Freshbooks wave or Xero. There are quite a few other little ones around. But really, QuickBooks is one of the main ones that business owners use. 

Since I’ve got out of the army, I have worked at several small businesses, and every single one of them used Quickbooks. And so, when I started my business, I used QuickBooks as well. When Sean started his business, he too uses Quickbooks, so that means that I have been using Quickbooks for probably about 20 years now so let’s talk about some of the pros of using QuickBooks. 

The first thing is QuickBooks is really easy to use. They have made it so that you can set up your business. It has all of these templates in there built for what size your business is what market you’re in, so if your business is a restaurant and my business is graphic design, they’re gonna put a different chart of accounts in there for you that’s gonna set up all of your expenses and your receivables a little bit differently. Another pro of QuickBooks is that pretty much every accountant uses it. And it’s a really cool way that you can give your accountant access to your QuickBooks account. 

QuickBooks is also an online software, so you can access your accounting from anywhere. That means on your desktop, they have a really great app that you can use that allows you to scan receipts and to make any adjustments that you would need to on the fly. 

QuickBooks also has a ton of reports that are really easy to use and are built right into the software so that you can see exactly what’s going on in your business and you can make better decisions.

So let’s talk about some of the cons of using Quickbooks. One of them was I did use their invoicing. I did it quite a while ago once they started once I started accepting payments online, and I did not like their invoicing. I didn’t like how it was set up, where the customers paid and how it was brought in. 

It didn’t really mesh well with how the bank accounts came in, and it just made my life a lot harder, so I actually used another software that I actually have another review for that. I use it for all of our invoices, so just like how the invoices how the bank charges and things like that came in a little funky quick list also doesn’t work perfectly with every single bank. 

I actually used bbt at when we first moved over to this side of the country, and I actually canceled my account there because of how their bbt put the information into QuickBooks. And I think that’s more of a bank issue and not really a QuickBooks issue, but I did notice that. That happened, and that’s one of the only things that has been kind of a big bummer about it. 

Another con of QuickBooks is the price has gone up a little bit, and they changed their business model as a lot of these software companies. Where you used to be able to just like you go to best buy or something and you buy like the box of software that came with the cd, and then you owned that copy of the software. And you only had to do updates on it. 

QuickBooks has done what a lot of these other software companies have done where it is now a subscription-based model, so you do have to pay for it every month. However, there are a lot of different options that will suit your business. If you’re just starting out, you can get it as low as 7.50 a month, and you really can, so like I said, QuickBooks does start at 7.50, but that would be for a very small business. I believe for a contractor or a freelancer, so you’re not going to get all the bells and whistles that you may need. 

For most people, it’s probably going to start at about 25 per month. I do have a special offer, though, and I’ll put the link down below where you can get 50 off for 90 days to give it a try. 

So let’s go inside of QuickBooks and take a little look so as you can see, QuickBooks has a lot of different features that it offers. Live bookkeeping, you can manage expenses for freelancers accounting for business payroll payments, and even more so if you wanted to do payroll through QuickBooks, it is going to cost you a little bit more. Also, invoices invoicing will cost you a little bit more, too, so sometimes it can get a little bit nickel and dime you are feeling. However, it is also nice that you don’t have to pay for all of these different options that you’re not even going to use, especially if you’re just starting out or if you’re just a small business and just need the basics. So as you can see here, it does say that the simple start plan is the beginning plan; however, if you go to plans and pricing and you scroll down, you’ll see that there is a self-employed freelancer option that starts at 750 a month.

And for having this kind of information about your business at your fingertips like you really can’t go wrong with starting this out. Knowing your accounts receivable, your accounts payable, having the data of knowing per month what’s going on in your business, and being able to run these types of reports are essential for knowing where you’re going and where you’ve been. And suppose you can start to measure your business in this way and start to look at a little bit of your metrics, especially your financial metrics. In that case, it’s going to help you make better decisions and be a better business owner overall, and QuickBooks is really easy to use. 

It’s not that difficult at all. The really nice thing is it connects to your bank account, and so every time that you get money in or money goes out, it automatically brings it into Quickbooks. So you just go in there and review it, and you categorize it based on what kind of charge it is. For example, if it’s your phone bill, then you actually categorize it as a telephone expense. If it is your electricity bill, you categorize it as utilities. Then that puts it in the right category, so you really don’t. Depending on how busy you are, you really only have to go in there a couple times a month and be able to see exactly what’s going on and just, you know, categorize all of your charges that are coming in or going out. You are going to have a beautiful snapshot of your business. No matter your business, financial peace of mind means everything having the freedom to focus on the day-to-day while knowing you’re set up n down the road. 

QuickBooks gives you the tools to make it happen. It starts with a dashboard. Everything’s there, all your linked bank and credit card accounts. This gives you insight into how your business is doing at a glance. Ready to send some invoices great but don’t send any generic invoice. Customize for a lasting impression, all while giving your customers an instant way to pay even on the go. Track expenses like mileage or snap and store receipt got it so long shoebox it doesn’t stop at tracking your income and expenses. 

QuickBooks even sorts them so you don’t miss deductions, and the receipt you snapped matched automatically. Tax time just went paperless with customizable tags, labels, and tracked transactions. However, you want to tag what’s important, like seasonal promotions and marketing channels. That way, you get insights tailored to your business. Looks like the spring promotion was a success. 

Nice QuickBooks keeps you a step ahead and allows you to focus on what matters most the chance to grow your passion from the ground up. 

All right, so do I think that Quickbooks is a smart choice for small business owners. My answer would be absolutely yes, no one should be doing their accounting by hand, and it’s great to have all of your data at your fingertips. Everything is just going to be ready for you at tax time. When tax time comes around, I don’t have to scramble for anything because I’ve taken those, you know, 10 minutes a month to go through and make sure that all of my transactions are good. That I’ve categorized every single transaction. And it gives me peace of mind all year that at any time, I can go in there and see exactly how my business is going. So absolutely, it is a smart choice, so if you want to give QuickBooks a try, you can go to toriemathis.com/quickbooks, and I’ll put the link below, and you can give it a try for a full 90 days for half price and see what you think. I think it’s going to be a smart choice for you. 

If you want to check out more from my series of smart software, definitely do. I have a lot of different software that is going to make your life your business run a lot smarter you.